Found a couple of nice squid risotto recipes on the BBC Food website.
Squid ink risotto with chargrilled marinated squid by James Martin
Squid risotto by Nick Nairn
Going to try them out, will let you know how I get on.
Lemon and Rocket Risotto
I am going through a risotto phase at the moment.
This is my original lemon risotto recipe.
In a large frying pan, place some olive oil and butter. Then add some finely chopped onion and the zest of two lemons.
Soften the onions.
Bring up the heat.
Add the risotto rice and ensure that the rice is coated in the oil and butter.
Add a splash of white wine.
Now add some chicken stock.
Keep topping up with stock to ensure that the rice doesn’t dry out.
Once the rice is virtually cooked, add the juice of the lemons, a large handful of grated parmesan, some roughly chopped rocket and some freshly ground black pepper.
Serve, garnish with a few slices of lemon.
Paella
Tonight I cooked (my version of) paella.
In a large frying pan, add some olive oil and butter.
Soften some onion (I used a normal and a red onion) and some red pepper. I also added some lemon zest.
Add some arborio risotto rice.
Ensure that the rice is coated in the oil, butter, onion and peppers.
At this point add some white wine, however I didn’t do this as I had no white wine.
Add some saffron, this will add colour and flavour.
Now add some chicken stock to cover the rice.
Stir.
As the rice cooks, add more chicken stock to ensure that it doesn’t dry out. The rice will take about fifteen to twenty minutes to cook.
A few minutes before serving, add the raw prawns and squid. They will cook quite quickly in the hot pan.
Before serving add the cooked lobster and wedges of lemon.
Obviously you could use alternative ingredients, such as chicken or mussels. I used lobster as I had got one from a local supermarket for just £2.99, it’s normally a lot more expensive!
Tex-Mex
Last night cooked some text-mex style food, I say tex-mex style as it was more of a homage to Cajun and Mexican cooking than authentic cooking.
We had Jambalaya, which I have a technique for, which I picked up from a programme on Cajun cooking some while back.
In a large frying pan, I fry off some smoked bacon (I use pancetta as I have it in the house) with some onions and red pepper.
When the onions are softened I add some Cajun spices. I am currently using and enjoying Fiddes Payne Cajun Seasoning, there are other seasonings
I cook off the spices before adding some spicy sausage, I used a Polish Kabanos, partly as that was available and yes I know it is not very deep south, and after that has cooked off slightly, I go ahead and deglaze the pan with some vinegar (usually balsamic vinegar).
I then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some tomate puree and leave to simmer for about twenty minutes.
Whilst that is cooking I cook some rice, I use basmati, partly as it only takes ten minutes to cook and mainly as that is what I have in the cupboard.
When the rice is cooked, I stir the tomato mixture and the rice together and serve.
You could make it spicier by adding fresh chillis, I don’t.
Chicken with honey and coriander
This was a Chinese meal with some additional extras.
The chicken was roasted in the oven with mushrooms, onions and spring onions (scallions) with honey and coriander.
I served the chicken with home made egg fried rice, basically take some cooked rice and fry with chinese five spice, spring onions and beaten egg.
I also cooked a selection of mushrooms including shitake and oyster mushrooms.
Pork Medallions with Apple
This dish went down very well with the family and is quite quick and simple to make.
Take some pork medallions (slice some pork tenderloin in 1″ slices or ask your butcher) in a hot frying pan, panfry on both side and then let rest.
As you cook the pork, soften half a diced onion with some pancetta in another pan.
Once you have removed the pork, add some butter to the pan and cook some apple slices, until they are soft and brown.
Remove the apple.
Turn the heat up, add some sliced mushrooms, once they are cooked, add the cooked onions and pancetta.
Add some spoonfuls of creme frache and freshly chopped parsley to make a sauce.
Slice the pork, add to a plate with the apple.
Add the sauce and serve with rice.
Rice Salad
I do like a nice rice salad.
The problem I have with some you can buy is that they are either too salty or too wet! So where possible I try and make my own.
This is a very simple recipe and you can adjust quantities to taste, how much you want, how much you have in the fridge.
Cook some rice.
I use basmati rice, in the main as it is so simple to cook, and cooks in ten minutes.
While the rice is cooking, in a frying pan add some olive oil and then add pancetta, onions, red pepper and courgettes. After that has cooked for a while add some mushrooms.
Ensure that they are cooked through and turn off the heat.
Now you could add the pepper, mushrooms, even the courgette raw, but I prefer to have them cooked.
Once the rice is cooked, drain and then to stop it cooking further and to cool it down rinse well with cold water.
Put the cooked rice in a bowl, add some mayonnaise and some creme frache.
Then add the cooked mixture.
Stir with a spoon until the rice and cooked mixture is evenly coated. As with a lot of salads though you could serve this straight away, it will improve if you leave it in the fridge for a few hours.
Excellent.
Pork with white wine and pancetta
Last night I cooked a very nice meal and it only took 15 minutes from scratch.
Ingredients
Pork medallions (or you could use loin steaks, pork chops or tenderloin)
Olive oil
Black pepper
Rice
Green beans
For the sauce
Pancetta
Onion
Parsley
Flour
White wine
Creme frache
So first boil the kettle with fresh water to cook the rice and the green beans.
Whilst the kettle is boiling put two pans on for the pork and the sauce. Add a dash of olive oil to both pans. When the oil is hot, add the pork (ensure it is dry) to one and the pancetta to the other.
Ensure the rice is washed, I now use basmati rice all the time, in the main as it cooks easily without sticking and only takes ten minutes. Put separate pans on for the rice and the beans. Time the rice for ten minute, the beans should be cooked after ten minutes as well.
Once the pancetta is cooked, add the onion, finely chopped.
Check the pork, turning if needed.
Once the onion is softened add a spoonful of flour to the pancetta and onion and stir well, then add a good dash of white wine. When it starts to thicken take off the heat.
When the pork is cooked, remove to a warm plate and allow to rest, this will make it tender.
Deglaze the pork pan, by adding a good dash of white wine. Add the pancetta and onion sauce and a couple of large spoonfuls of creme frache, add the parsely and freshly ground black pepper.
Stir.
Put the rice on the plate, you can just spoon it on, if you have more than fifteen minutes then I use a ramekin, spoon the rice into the ramekin and then upturn onto the plate, looks neater than a spoonfuls of rice.
You can either leave the pork whole, or slice depending on what you prefer.
Cover the pork with the sauce.
Serve with the green beans.
Fifteen minutes from entering the kitchen to on the table.
Sorted.
Risotto disaster…
Last night I decided to cook a risotto to go with the shellfish I was cooking. I have done this in the past usually using white wine, lemon, rocket and parmesan to flavour the risotto. Alas I had no white wine, no lemon and no rocket, though I did have a block of parmesan to hand. Little piece of advice here, never buy pre-grated parmesan this is usually grated from dried out pieces of old parmesan or so an old Italian friend of mine once said. Though as it is usually cheaper than the solid stuff I am inclined to believe her! So there I was cooking this risotto and wondering how I should flavour it. Well I had mushrooms and they always work well in risotto, I had some red wine, and I had some chicken stock. There we go, good to go, or so I thought.
Basically it didn’t work quite as well as I hoped. Firstly it came out a grey lilac colour rather than the rich red brown I was expecting. Well that was down to the red wine, lack of dark stock and the mushrooms. Secondly it was rather bland, it had no bite. I think it could have done with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
Most of it was eaten so either we were hungry or it wasn’t half as bad as it looked.
Having said that, the scallops wrapped in pancetta were delicious.